Loading...
Loading...

Welcome to another enlightening episode of The Anchored Podcast! In this episode, we dive into the transformative power of an "enchanted intellect" with Andrew Morton, a senior fellow at Worldview Academy. Discover how reading full novels and engaging with classics like Narnia and Lord of the Rings can shape a vibrant, resilient faith in students.
Join us as Andrew shares how Worldview Academy’s summer camps forge hearts and minds through interactive experiences, igniting a love for truth, goodness, and beauty. Learn how this approach challenges the modern tendency to compartmentalize faith and reason, fostering a worldview rooted in awe and wonder.
If you're a parent, educator, or student longing for education that feeds the soul as much as the mind, this episode is your catalyst. Discover the revolutionary potential of seeing God's glory in the ordinary and learn how to cultivate an enchanted worldview that lasts beyond the classroom.
If you enjoyed this episode, please like, share, and subscribe to The Anchored Podcast for more inspiring content. Your support helps us continue to bring you insightful discussions and transformative ideas.
Thank you for listening and stay anchored in truth!
To learn more about Worldview Academy, visit their website at:
https://worldview.org/
Timestamps:
[00:00] Introduction and guest Andrew Morton’s background
[01:10] Andrew’s educational journey from homeschooling to Grove City College
[02:44] The role of classical education unknowingly received by Andrew
[03:52] The influence of books and literature on his worldview formation
[04:36] The value of Grove City College as a cost-effective, faith-aligned institution
[05:47] The importance of the classical Christian renewal and its hidden impact
[06:25] How Andrew’s familiarity with the term 'classical education' evolved
[07:21] The impact of reading Lewis, Tolkien, and George MacDonald on imagination
[08:17] Worldview Academy’s classical experience and its formative role
[09:15] The cultural significance of The Lord of the Rings release
[09:42] The decline of reading full novels and its impact on imagination
[10:01] The connection of fiction to the formation of moral imagination
[11:19] The misconception about fantasy and the reinforcing of reality through fiction
[12:04] How Andrew and his family first engaged with Worldview Academy
[12:30] Overview of Worldview Academy’s mission and camp experience
[14:26] How camp simulates an internship in a life committed to Christ
[15:25] The integration of heart, mind, and will in formation at camp
[16:23] The importance of love for truth and personal devotion
[17:41] Evangelism training and real-world application during camp trips
[19:04] The transformative impact of shared faith experiences and evangelism
[20:22] Target demographics and demographic diversity at camps
[21:00] Locations and frequency of camps across the country
[22:30] The flexibility of student backgrounds and their growth
[23:44] The role of being 'enchanted' in teaching and educational impact
[24:19] Andrew’s reflections on GK Chesterton’s The Ethics of Elfland
[26:50] The significance of beauty, wonder, and the enchanted worldview
[30:12] The challenge of modern mechanistic explanations versus biblical wonder
[33:26] Encapsulating wonder: wonder at the magic, gratitude to the magician
[34:23] Chesterton’s imagery of enchantment and the everyday wonder of God’s creation
[36:37] The diverse profiles of students and how the camp impacts different backgrounds
[39:22] The encouraging statistic of student retention and enthusiasm for camp
[40:22] The alignment of CLT’s humanized assessment with the camp’s formative goals
[40:57] Andrew’s recommended reading: The Weight of Glory and Mere Christianity
[43:04] Closing thoughts and encouragement to explore cla
My favorite encapsulation of, I guess, of all this, I stole from a student, we were reading
the ethics of Elfland, and I had them do reflections. And here's what he said. This was his,
their challenge was to try to encapsulate in one sentence, okay, the chief take away from the text.
And his answer was, the most reasonable response to reality is wonder at the magic and gratitude toward
the magician. Anchored is a production of the classic learning test, based in the Napolis,
Maryland, reconnecting knowledge and virtue through meaningful assessments. Visit us at CLTXAM.com
slash get started. Welcome back to the Anchored podcast, the official podcast of the classic
learning test. My name is Soren Schwab, VP of partnerships here at CLT, and today we're joined by
Andrew Morton. Andrew Morton is a senior fellow at World View Academy. Andrew's relationship
with World View began in 2002 when his life was changed at camp. He attended World View Academy
several times in the early 2000s and served as college staff for several years starting in
I know four. Having earned a BA in philosophy from one of my favorite colleges, Grove City College,
Andrew is passionate about teaching Christians in all seasons of life, how to integrate the life
of their mind with that of their faith. For over a decade, he has been an educational ministry
as a part of the classical Christian education renewal as both a teacher and administrator.
He has taught logic, philosophy, apologetics, history, integrated humanities, and mathematics,
pioneered leadership discipleship programs in the 7th through 12th grade and trained besting class
teachers. His wife Elizabeth and his two children William and Claire joyfully spent their summers
traveling with Andrew as he teaches with World View Academy and friends were in for a treat. I'm
so excited to have Andrew on the podcast today. Welcome. Thank you so much, Soren. It is such a joy
to be here. Yeah, I was really looking forward to the recording here and I'm excited for our audience
to learn more about World View Academy. Before we get into that, as we always do in the Anchored
Podcast, we'd love to hear about your own kind of educational journey. Talk to us a little
bit about your K-12 formation and of course how you got to Grove City. Absolutely. It's a good story,
but I will keep it short and sweet. Net out, I was homeschooled. When my mother, she loved to say
I was homeschooling before homeschooling was cool. Back in the 80s. That was a real thing. If we
went to the grocery store on a weekday, there was some concern. If I had been out running through
the woods and had some bruises and cuts from the brambles or whatever, it's like, man,
somebody going to call child services on us. I'm the youngest three and my mother homeschooled
all three. Back in that era, the classical Christian renewal, as we know, it was just kind of
getting started. If you were a believer who held the conviction that the public school system
was not an option for your kids, you really had very few options. My mother made the choice
to sacrificially teach us all at home. I did that. My 10th technically, so when you're homeschooled,
this is kind of a funny anecdote. If you ask homeschoolers what grade they're in, I think
come in and I kind of love that. There is a beauty to that. But roughly around my sophomore
junior year, I went to, I did the dual enrolled thing, went to the junior college, great experience
both in terms of still a good education at the junior college level at the time. But also
very formative in that I encountered a lot of resistance to my faith and got to put into practice
things that I had been learning a World View Academy. Another big piece of my formation would be
13, 14 and 15. I did indeed attend World View Academy as a student, which had a profound effect
on my life, which I'm sure we'll get into more later. But yeah, so I dual enrolled. My thinking was,
this is going to be great. I'm going to knock out my gen eds. Then I can transfer as a junior and
just knock out my last two years. Well, I learned one of our longstanding partners is Grove City College.
World View, Grove City have a lovely relationship. I learned about Grove City from a full page ad in
our student notebook at camp. Wow. Yep. And so I applied, little plug-a-plug-plug here for Grove City.
I applied to, I mean, I knew my experience at World View had convicted me. Educational ministry
was for me. I was supposed to go on. I was supposed to continue learning. Maybe write, who knows?
Teach on the collegiate level was my initial dream. I was going to be professor Morton.
And I knew I wanted to do that. So I applied to the kind of the schools that you would think,
Wheaton and Biola and Grove City. In the end, what I learned was Grove City offered, you know,
a wonderful, wonderful classical educational program for less than half the cost of everybody else.
So I was able to work a pizza delivery job and pay cash for college, which was amazing.
And it's still the case that Grove City is the best value out there. So again,
without accepting a dollar from the federal government. And that's exactly it, right?
Maybe there's a connection between those two things. So yeah, I went to Grove City and then
alas, all of my hard earned credits, they only accepted as electives. So I crammed a four-year degree
into five years as one is want. And I majored in philosophy. That was my way of cheating. I wanted
to study everything. And so philosophy is kind of, you get to do that. As the, you know, secondary
discipline that undergirds all disciplines, it's kind of a way of cheating.
Minered in history, interdisciplinary classics and theology, I was one credit away from getting
my history minor, but I decided to get married and move on with life. So that's that. I've been
very slowly, very, very slowly, emphasis on slowly, working on a master's degree through
Southern evangelical seminary in philosophy. But yeah, that's kind of my formal educational journey.
We're at intersex with the classical renewals, another kind of story altogether.
Yeah, well, let's, I guess, you know, when I'm listening to this, it's clear that the love of
learning and, you know, and pursuit of knowledge was kind of instilled to you, you know, from,
from early on. And it seems like growth city just kind of complemented that, that's so well.
I got, I am curious because you talked about, you know, that was really at the, I mean, year,
your mother was a trailblazer, right? When it comes, comes to kind of a specialty class at
the homeschooling, did, were you aware of that word, classical education? I mean, was that something
that you used or was it just something you received and later on, like, oh, that's what that refers
to now. It was very much the latter. You know, the classical was not in vogue. I mean, at the time,
if you went to a homeschool convention, what, what, what passed for homeschool convention in that era,
you know, you had a Becca, you had school of tomorrow, you know, Bob Jones. Bob Jones, you know,
now you go, you go to homeschool convention, you're overwhelmed by the resources. It's a totally
different ballgame. But no, the classical concept, it was there kind of unconsciously, but I don't
think my mother ever thought to herself, I'm going to teach my kids classically. It kind of happened
by accident through reading great books. Two things happened that really steered me in that direction.
I found my brother's copy of The Chronicles of Narnia. I think I was 11 at the time, 10 or 11.
My parents were by and large unaware of Lewis and Tolkien. There was a copy of The Hobbit
on my mom's shelf, but that's because it was on a, you know, a suggested curriculum list.
I picked up The Chronicles of Narnia and consumed those in three days. And then I picked up The Hobbit
and read that. And then I said, Mom, I really need this Lord of the Rings thing. And I read that.
And that immersive me on this journey into the Inklings world, which is a classical world.
So that happened. I fell in love with CS Lewis, Tolkien, George McDonald, at all.
And then I went to World View Academy, which I didn't understand this at the time. You know,
those of us in the classical Christian renewal know what's happening to those students in the
classroom. A lot of the time they're unaware of what's being done to them. I was unaware of what
was being done to me at World View Academy. So it's only retrospectively I can look back and go,
oh, I see how these things connect. But World View was a very classical experience. And the teachers
were by and large classical educators. And so of course, that came through. So those two things,
I guess you could say, you know, Lewis talks about how his bad, his imagination was baptized by
George McDonald. And his intellect was baptized by GK Chesterton. Well, my intellect was
baptized. And my imagination was baptized by World View Academy. And then CS Lewis, and Tolkien,
and George McDonald. So that is so neat. That is so neat to hear. And good on your mom to
still buy the hobbit, even though, indeed, you know, the imprinted head on, indeed. I'll never,
I'll never forget. I feel so sad for, you know, this great generation of students because
as I tell them, you'll never really experience what going to a great movie in theaters is like.
And you will never experience when the Lord of the Rings came out in theaters for the first time,
which was a quite the incredible cultural moment. Oh my god, I was still living in Germany. And
I remember I did the three in a row. Yes, you know, I mean, it was, it was something else. But,
I mean, I got, Andrew, so many students will never know what it feels like to read a whole book.
Right. I mean, you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, and just listening to you and, and,
and describe that, that experience of what it did to your imagination, your moral imagination.
You rarely ever hear people, oh my god, I just fell in love with reading when I read this like
informational text or this man, right? I mean, you know, and yet that's kind of what we're now
giving to our students in high school, right? They don't read full novels anymore. And
and then we are so surprised that they don't become readers, you know, no, I couldn't agree more,
which, you know, part of that, you know, we're, we talk about the enchanted mind, the enchanted
intellect or an enchanted worldview. I mean, very obviously a part of my formation was, it wasn't,
I mean, yes, I, when I discovered the Chronicles that led me in later years to
my Christianity and the abolition of man until we have faces in the great divorce and, you know,
that, you know, I started reading, you know, everybody that Lewis read and, you know, so yes,
I did end up in the, in the, in the deeper theological waters, but my imagination was formed
primarily by fiction. Um, I have become a huge advocate. Um, and every chance I get, I encourage
fathers, especially, and mothers read great fiction to your kids, and especially, please, um,
there's kind of a unique, and I can understand and have a lot of sympathy for the impetus behind
this. There's kind of a unique, um, within the Christian evangelical world, there's a subculture
that's still very like magic and fantasy and all that is very scary and, um, and unfortunately,
that has led to some confusion about, you know, what Tolkien and Lewis were doing with their works,
or George McDonald, um, and how, um, when you engage with great fiction like that, great fantasy
fiction, um, it actually reinforces what is real. It's not escapism. Um, and I, I can, I would venture
to say, I can put percentages on it, but I, I talk about mere Christianity and I teach out of
texts like the weight of glory, but man, it, it was arrogant that shaped me, right? Um, it was
Prince Caspian that shaped me. Um, and yeah, you're absolutely right, Soren. Um, if we want students
to love reading, we have to give them things that are worth loving. Um, and you, you don't hand
somebody, uh, Calvin's institutes first, right? Um, that's not where we start, but any who, um,
please, yeah, that's, let's not, let's not do that. Um, well, I would love to hear kind of that,
that's true. I mean, I love, you know, when, when you have folks that, you know, work for an
organization and then they themselves were so impacted by it back in the days, right? So, uh, talk to us,
talk to us about that first, um, how did you, how did you, or your mom, I suppose, uh, first
hear about World View Academy? What was that first experience like? And then maybe just give a
brief for our audience that is not familiar with it, like what is World View Academy? Those camps.
Absolutely. In my favorite topic. So I'll try to, I'll try to limit the, you know, the timeline.
Um, so I, um, I first went when I was 13 and, uh, World View Academy started in 1996. The,
the four founders of World View looked around and realized, man, there, there is a, there is a,
there's a gap here. Um, there, there, there is a vacuum. Um, we are not, I mean, Charles Malik,
many, many years ago pointed out that, uh, we are effective at spiritually converting people,
but very ineffective at intellectually converting people. Um, and so, uh, what, what they recognize
was there was a need, um, for training, a need for real training and not just training in a
transference of information, um, but in, in true formation. Um, so they, they were founded in 96.
Um, it's a, it's the form of the ministry is primarily that of a, it's a leadership camp. It's
a summer leadership camp experience, but it's, it's unlike any leadership camp I guarantee you,
it's unlike any leadership camp you have been to. Um, the best analogy I can come up with is
attending World View. It's a, it's a Sunday through a Friday. There are 25 hours of class time,
but that is not information transfer time. That is, uh, formative, engaging, interactive experiences.
You can actually get up to two credit hours of college credit through Corbin University for going
to World View Academy. Um, another one of our ministry partners. Um, but it's like stepping into
a apprenticeship or a, um, like a, like an internship, right? When you get an internship
in some career path, you get to go and kind of taste what it's like to do that job.
You get a sense of what the daily work is. You get a sense of what the payoff is. Whether this
is meaningful or not, and, and that'll tell you, should I continue down this career path or not?
All analogies break down over time, but the best analogy I can give you is going to World View Academy
for that week is like an internship and what it's like to live a life that is fully sold out to
Jesus Christ. Uh, every part of the camp experience is designed intentionally to capture, right? We're
not, we're not merely homo sapiens, right? Um, we are also homo adorans and we are homo
volins, right? So we are, we are thinking, adoring, and willing creatures. And so formation has to
affect all of those true formation. Um, so every part of the camp experience is designed to
impact not just your mind to think biblically, but your heart to feel biblically and your will
to, to act biblically. For instance, one of the first things students learn at the beginning of camp
is how to engage in personal devotions in God's word. There are no phones at camp, okay?
Get those out of the way. Um, uh, we have a great communication system where parents can get a
whole of our staff and if students need to talk to mom and dad, it's arranged, but get those
distractions out of the way. Bring a Bible, right? Um, and then they are given tools for doing
personal quiet times. We call it a quiet time. And at the beginning of camp, they're given some
tools and some models for how to do that. And then every day it's built into the schedule,
the students get up at the same time and they have their quiet time. They start their day in God's
word and personal pursuit of Christ in his word. Um, and that's every single day. Um, another
example of this kind of marriage of heart will, um, obviously, you know, we're going to be talking
about what it means to be enchanted. Um, but as homo adorans is adoring, right? We know here in
the classical world, um, there are terms that get thrown around, um, concepts get thrown around.
One of those, right? I thought we'd already used the phrase information transfer, right? That's
a, that's a big bug of a, we don't want information transfer, uh, or mere information transfer. Um,
and that's because we, we realize what we love is more impactful than what we merely think.
So the, the experience at camp is not merely designed to give good information. It's to help the
student love it. Um, there's this wonderful passage in mere Christianity. I'll read it to you
because otherwise I'll butcher it. Um, where Lewis makes this point, he says, God cannot give us
happiness and peace apart from himself because it's not there. There is no such thing. Um,
and then to connect that with a passage, um, from Spurgeon to know him is to love him.
Um, so we want students to taste that, to learn what it is to drink from the found
that is the only found of true joy, to live it out. Um, and for that to have lasting
impact on their lives beyond camp. Um, last example, and then, um, I'll let you take the conversation
where you want, but, uh, we train students in evangelism methods. So our four pillars,
our worldviews, so students will learn and get trained in, um, how to think about other worldviews,
and they receive mere Christianity-esque training and Christian theology. What are the basics of
the Christian faith that all faith traditions can agree on, right? The authority of scripture,
the deity of Christ, um, apologetics, how to defend Christian truth claims, um, in a hostile world.
That part of the program is constantly being updated to, you know, deal with the current,
um, you know, what, what is the current and invogue threats to the Christian world from an
intellectual standpoint, and then evangelism. Um, this is not about becoming, you know,
patting each other on the back and going, boy, what good smart Christians we are and how many,
how many things we know that other people don't know. It's, we want students to leave camp,
brokenhearted. There are people who don't know Jesus because they now have tasted, um,
what it is to know in love and pursue after Jesus. So every Wednesday, so we train them,
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and then a Wednesday. It's, it's a logistical nightmare, um, but we do it,
right? It is so worth it. It is one of those things that makes worldview so unique. We stick all those
kids on a bus. We take them to a, uh, secular campus of some kind and they share their faith with
strangers. Every summer, people come to Christ. Every summer, these kids go out and they,
they talk to an atheist. Oh, wow, they really do believe what those guys say they believe. They
talk to Hindus, they talk to, um, Muslims, um, Satanists, right? You name it. And then they come
back together after that, we call it the evangelism practicum and they all share their stories. So
they get to benefit from each other's experiences. But by the time camp is over, these students have
spent a week pursuing Christ with the first fruits of their time every day. They have learned that
the life of their mind and the life of their faith are actually one and the same. Um, they have
learned that the Christian worldview is not merely one of the options out there. It's the foundation
of all reality and insofar as any other worldview makes sense, it's stealing from our worldview to
build its own. And then they learn that we, we have been given a charge. Uh, the not-so-subtle
suggestion is one of my friends calls it the great commission. Go out making disciples. Um,
they have a heart for the lost and they have done it. They have done the scariest thing.
They have shared their faith with a stranger and they live to tell the tale.
The impact of that is just, it's incredible. Um, man, I love to be a fly on the wall, especially
kind of the debrief. Do it, you know, when they share, when they share those, you are, you are
welcome to come. Let us know you're coming and we'll share a meal with you and you can sit
on some sessions. So it would be fantastic. Well, tell me about, uh, I mean, this was, this was
incredible. Uh, thanks for, thanks for sharing that. Uh, let's, let's talk about some of the practical.
How old are the students? Is it, is it, is it target towards high school students in middle school,
what's kind of the age group and then, uh, locations? Is, is there one worldview academy with one,
you know, or, or is it all over the country? Got it. What about that? Absolutely. So target
ages are 13 to 18. Okay. It really is geared toward those formative, you know, middle and high
school years. Um, so, you know, there's such a malleability there. Um, and, and it's so critical
that they get a taste of the, of the real deal, um, in that time frame. Um, there are multiple camps
all over the country. So the ministry is based out of Texas. Um, but we have two teams of teaching
faculty and college staff. Um, the college staffers, I mean, these are, we, we love to say we have
the best college staff in the world. It's so true. Um, the college staffers come from all over
the country. They're responsible for helping the students, um, uh, kind of debrief, apply and
understand the content that's happening in the class and then personally leading them by example
throughout the week. And there's two different teams, one roughly east coast and one roughly
west coast. So there are total, if I remember correctly, 16 camps at different college campuses
during the summer. And then there's fall camps hosted in Texas. Um, so if you go to our website
worldview.org, there's a map that'll show you the nearest camp to you. Um, and, um, and the cost
and everything else associated with it, um, which depends on the campus, um, uh, where we're,
where we're hosted. Um, I would venture to say, um, yeah, up up there in your neck of the woods,
we got a camp in New Hampshire, we've got a camp in Virginia, we got camps in Pennsylvania. So
kind of all around you, we need a camp in Maryland though. So, um, there we go. There we go,
soren, uh, mission mission, uh, your mission, should you choose to accept it?
Incredible, incredible. And it will, of course, link, uh, uh, in the show notes and make sure we
get the, the website on there and more information for, for our audience. Uh, well, Andrew, you
mentioned, uh, the, the term enchanted intellect before. And, and earlier, what, what, um, resonated
with me, you mentioned kind of the formation, sometimes the formation of the, uh, the spiritual,
without the intellectual or vice versa, right? And we can probably all think of examples,
even maybe our own K-12 education, where maybe the one was a bit more than the other. Um,
what, what is that concept of the enchanted intellect? Uh, and, and how is it? Uh, yeah, how,
how do you guys think about it? Um, would love to hear more? Sure. Absolutely. Um, you know,
so this is, I, I'm gonna have to read you again. Um, so my journey in this terminology, I'm sure
somebody else out there has, has already written on the topic and, um, you know, we'll,
we'll be able to articulate this way better than I can. Um, but I was reading in, um, preface to
paradise lost. Um, and in that, Lewis makes a dedication to Charles Williams. And there was this
curious phrase that stuck with me for years. And as I was, um, so I, I guess a very short
biography about my connection with the classical world, um, graduate, grocery, I'm married,
working in software, knowing I want to get into the educational world. Um, one of my old mentors
from worldview says you need to get on the ACCS website and apply, find a job, start teaching.
So I did that, landed a job in Concord, North Carolina, and, uh, loved it, fell in love with the
whole movement. I actually, um, I called up the, the nearest school to me at the time, which was
Whitfield Academy in Kansas City. And I apprenticed myself to them. I just said, hey, I want to get into
this. I'm reading Doug Wilson's book, uh, you know, I was handed Martianna's capella. Um,
that's a bit over my head, but, you know, I'm intrigued. Help me. Um, I just want to come and learn
what you guys do. I'll volunteer my time, seven classes for free. And, uh, they graciously invited
me in and I got to sit for a year working with some other teachers and just observing. Um,
but in that time, um, I was reading this, uh, preface to paradise lost, uh, and when I came
and I had my own classroom, this stuck with me. I could not get it out of my head. So he's writing
to Charles Williams. And he says it's, uh, but it is a reasonable hope that of those who heard you
in Oxford, many will understand henceforth that when the old poets made some virtue their theme,
they were not teaching, but adoring and that what we take for the didactic is often the enchanted.
Okay, so I read this and the preface to paradise lost is wonderful, but of all the things I read in it,
the preface, uh, the dedication to Williams sticks with me. What is that, you know, what does that
mean? To be so enchanted that, um, a student could be sitting in your classroom going,
this guy must have spent a hundred hours crafting this lesson and practicing what he's saying
and, and, and the theatrics of it all. Wow. I mean, that's incredible. But no, no, what happened was
that that person came into the room and they were so in love with what they were communicating.
Um, uh, and that they had to communicate it to students that they loved. That's a, uh,
a wonderful definition of education, right? It's loving your subject with students that you love.
And so that really resonated with me. What does it mean to be an enchanted teacher?
And I think there's a, there's a great deal about this that is intuitive. Um, I mentioned,
uh, we don't want to produce merely, uh, intellectually converted people. Uh, we don't want
merely spiritually converted people. We want the whole person, right? The classical, um, Christian
educational enterprise is the formation of a true human being. Um, that's why we call them the
liberal arts. Because when a student, a young person engages within masters, these arts,
it frees them to become, uh, what they were meant to be, right? Their tell us, um, that for which
they were aimed and made. And so, uh, you know, I, uh, I wanted to capture, I wanted to capture
hearts and not merely minds. Asius Lewis says, we don't want merely clever devils. And so I became
convicted that that was a discipline I had to inhabit. There are days when I show up at the
classroom. Um, and I, I'm not feeling it. Um, and it required a discipline for me to remember,
no, these things that I'm teaching are great and beautiful. Um, and this is when I said a lot of
it's intuitive, we know that there are things in life that are caught, not taught. Uh, you have to
be contagious, right? You have to possess the contagion of enchantment. If you want your students
to catch it from you. And so first and foremost, um, the way I think about it, the way we think
about it at world view, the way, um, you know, in my classroom, I thought about it. If I'm not
enchanted with what my, I'm teaching my children, uh, and what I'm teaching my students, um, then I,
I'm teaching them to be disenchanted, right? I'm teaching them to be disenchanted with this.
Um, so there's a lot of ways we can go with that. Um, at world view, what that looks like
practically is, um, you know, the, I said, it's kind of like an internship or an apprenticeship.
Um, they, uh, they are going to sit in classrooms with faculty who are so in love with what
they're teaching that they dedicate their summers to travel around the country and do this without
pay every summer. Um, and with a group of college staffers that could be off at an internship,
but who love what, what this ministry is doing so much that they devote their summers to it.
Authentic, um, followers of Christ, there's not a mercenary in the crowd who love Jesus with
their heart, mind, soul and strength. Um, so that's one part of it. Um, the enchantment piece,
you can go into a lot of different directions. Um, you know, you and I could probably have a whole
conversation just unpacking a GK Chesterton and the ethics of Elfland. I mean, that, um,
so if you, if you want to, so very briefly for those who plug, even if we don't get into it,
if I do nothing today, but inspire, uh, your listeners to go read more Lewis Chesterton and Tolkien
than boom, uh, successful. Um, hopefully you'll also, um, look into World of the Academy. We would
love to love on your students. Um, but Chesterton wrote this beautiful essay inside the book orthodoxy
called The Ethics of Elfland. Um, and, uh, this is where we get into the whole modernity versus,
um, what we might call pre-modernity or the ancient world view, the ancient mindset. Um, and so
when we talk about and then chanted intellect or an enchanted world view,
part of that is seeing the world through the lens of a truly biblical world view that has been
obscured by modernity, right? And it's very mechanistic, um, scientific, reductionistic way of
explaining reality. And what Chesterton points out, um, again, this is the, the 32nd version, uh, is
that what are laws of science anyway, right? We believe that when we give a physical description
of something that we've described it in its totality, but a law of science is just an articulation
of a repeated occurrence. I mean, that's what it is. When we, when I ask the question,
when a Christian gets up and, uh, they slide their legs out of bed and they don't float into the ceiling,
right? Uh, you know, why? Why is that happening? Well, um, science says gravity. And then when
you say, well, what is gravity? Well, it's, uh, it's the attraction of objects of mass to one
another. And well, what does that mean, right? Eventually, right, you're going to get to the bottom
where the answer is something like it's magic, right? Um, what Chesterton points out is it's an
unwarranted inference to say that because something usually happens or even has always happened,
that it will continue to happen. And laws of science have no causal power. They're just
descriptions of how things have happened. And so he suggests that no, no, no, no, no, that's,
that's not what we see in scripture. Science is wonderful and the laws of science are beautiful
descriptions of God's creative handiwork. And so there's this wonderful passage. We would read in
my classroom, we would read, uh, the ethics of Elfland as part of my philosophy and apologetics class.
And, um, there's this wonderful passage where he says, why does the sun come up every day? It's
because God is up there going, oh, do it again, right? Uh, every day God is so enamored with how cool
the sun is that he goes, do it again, do it again. Um, so my favorite encapsulation of, uh,
uh, uh, guess of all this, I stole from a student, uh, we were reading the ethics of Elfland,
and I had them do reflections. And here's what he said. This was his, uh, their challenge was to
try to encapsulate in one sentence, okay, the chief take away from the text. And his answer was the
most reasonable response to reality is wonder at the magic and gratitude toward the magician.
Are you going to repeat that? Oh, oh, yeah. So, this is good. Yeah. So the most reasonable response
to reality is wonder at the magic and gratitude toward the magician.
So, um, there's this beautiful, um, another, another plug for a wonderful book for your readers.
If you guys have an encountered, um, winter, winter fire, it's a delightful, uh, Christmas and
Advent devotional by a guy named Ryan Whitaker Smith. It's a subtitle is Christmas with GK
Chesterton. Um, it is, it is delightful snag a copy. Um, but there's this beautiful passage that I
think encapsulates what he's getting at. Um, we have lost something, um, with the rise of modernity
and this mechanistic perspective, um, a loss of enchantment. And he gives this description, um,
of GK Chesterton, uh, you know, and it's this beautiful image of what the enchanted
intellect looks like. Um, he says, so, uh, so Chesterton exits this garden and turns the corner.
And the large man's cane is clinking along the cobblestones and he mutters under his breath
something about Christmas. And then he's momentarily stunned into silence by the image of a sparrow
on a tall barren tree's branch silhouetted against the darkening sky. Right? Okay.
I love that picture. Nothing is more mundane in England than a sparrow on a tree branch.
But the enchanted intellect is stunned into silence. When they observe what we think of as this
mundane phenomenon. So there's a real sense in which, um, I've kind of made it my life's quest
to be that person and to have this infectious contagion, um, of seeing the magic everywhere, um,
of seeing God's handiwork and creativity and everything. This is one of the most beautiful and
wonderful things about fantasy fiction. Um, as Chesterton said, the purpose of travel isn't to go to
a foreign country. It's to return to your homeland and experience it as a foreign country,
meaning that when you, when we walk away from the, the, the mere incidental creative things that
God has done, I mean trees didn't have to be green. Things didn't have to be attracted to objects
of mass. Um, things could float up instead of down, um, you know, there's such a multitude of creative
decisions that God has made and sustains in being himself. Um, you know, none, none of that is
necessary. And when we go into a fantasy world where things do float up and trees are purple,
part of the purpose of that is to bring us back to our own world and rekindle the wonder at what
God has done here, right, with his creative masterpiece. Um, but I could, again, I could, we can,
well, this is, this is fascinating. We can keep doing this forever. Um, this is great. Um,
we talked a lot about classical Christian education. Sure.
World view academy is not just for students that are receiving a certain kind of education,
right? So whether you're public schooled, you went there as a homeschool student, right?
Yes. It doesn't matter as long as you're between 13 and 18, right? What are some other,
kind of, I guess, like the typical profile of, of attendee at world view academy. What would you
say was really all over the place? It is, it is all over the place, right? I mean, we have,
um, you know, within the classical Christian renewal when students come, um, they're like,
ooh, this is familiar and good. And, uh, they go back to their classrooms, uh, those of us
who have taught in the classical Christian world, we've always had that parent come to us and go,
well, Johnny came home yesterday and he said this thing that I've been telling them for 10 years.
And then you said it. And suddenly it's, it's meaningful to them, right? We've all had that
conversation. World view does that, right? It takes in a different kind of package that impacts
the heart and mind in a different kind of way. Um, a lot of the same material that I, that I
classically trained student is receiving, reinforcing, igniting passion. Um, and then, you know,
it's got different emphases in terms of, uh, current cultural engagement. Um, but if you are,
um, we have a lot of homeschool students, we have public school students. Um, I mean, it,
it really is designed to meet a person where they're at and be able to draw them deeper,
depending on exactly where they are. Hence why, um, so every, every student is grouped into a small
group of like age and sex with their own small group leader so that they can have age appropriate
level of depth conversations. Uh, and there's a, the intentional structure to those conversations
when they happen. Um, uh, I should mention, because this sounds like students are just in class
from the entire week. There is a, there is free time as well. There is sports. Um, but even,
even those activities are being conducted intentionally. The students don't realize this,
but those activities become the examples that are later used to apply the principles of leadership
that students are learning. Um, so it's again, nothing, nothing is, is wasted. Um, but uh, yeah,
I mean, the profile really is very broad. Um, you know, I, I staffed with the ministry as a college
staffer. Um, uh, so 2006 and 2007 for the whole summers and then a smattering of fall camps here and
there. And so I got to, I got to experience the gambit of small groups. Um, and inevitably there
would be some kids in that small group who are classically trained and, you know, they were
taken the conversation deeper. There would be homeschool students, you know, engaging in the same
way and public school students that are going, wow, this is really interesting. Can explain some of
these terms to me. And then there was always one or two guys that were like, I'm here because my
mother made me, right, every time. Now, the, the best part, and this was what was so exciting.
At first, that was really discouraging to me as a young man. It's like, oh, great. I've got
these guys that don't want to be here by the end of camp. Um, so the amazing statistic and I haven't,
I haven't got an update on this. But when I was on college staff, our early bird registration
rate was in the, is it the upper 80% meaning that at the end of camp, over 80% of the students
were immediately asking their parents to sign them up again. And so inevitably, I'd have those two
guys that are there, mom made me at the end of camp. They're going, mom, we should, we should
probably do this again. Right. And then they're going out and mowing lawns so they can pay for it
themselves. Yeah. And they oftentimes become the, the best evangelists, right? Exactly. It's exactly
it. Yep. Absolutely. Love that. I mean, I've worked for a standardized test company. So
the number of students that take a test because their mom made them, it's quite high. But you know
what? There's still going to be exposed to truth, goodness and beauty and beautiful passages,
right? And yes, but that's absolutely what I mean, that's the, the mission of CLT,
dovetails so beautifully with all this because you are humanizing assessment. That's right.
I mean, yeah, but yeah, I'm sure we can go off on that tangent bit.
Well, my friend, this has been so delightful. I, I could talk to you for many more hours about,
about all of this, but for the sake of time. And we talked a little bit before we started recording
about having to pick one book or one text and you're already quoted so many. So I know it's
and it's difficult, but try to be disciplined. Andrew, is there, is there a specific book or text
that you can point to that that just had such a profound impact on your life with the exception
of course, the Bible. I'm assuming that would be your first bet. What would it be in and why?
Okay, so I thought quite a bit about this and I have to say there's two texts some debating
back and forth on. One is it's a, it's, so there's a book called The Weight of Glory. It's a collection
of CS Lewis's sermons and essays. And the sermon in there entitled The Weight of Glory. And then
there's another one called Transposition. Together, when you read them together, it's pretty amazing.
I actually proposed to my wife in the church that Lewis delivered that sermon in. So it's
another great story. That's pretty neat. It was amazing. But so that text The Weight of Glory
is huge. I reread it annually because I need that refreshment. But if I really, okay, so to not
cheat, if I really had to boil it down to the text that had the most profound impact on me and that
I still return to, it would be the third part of mere Christianity beyond personality.
It's actually the last couple of paragraphs of the book. And it's that Seaky first the kingdom
right and all these things will be added into you. It's that right communicated in Lewis's
inimitable style. He points out that if we pursue ourselves, right, if we pursue after ourselves,
we will in the long run only find death decay and despair. But if we pursue Christ,
we get Christ. And with him, everything else thrown in, sorry, I can't even quote it. It gets
to me. If we pursue Christ, we get Christ. And with him, everything else thrown in, that revolutionized
my thinking and my life and my heart. And grateful to brother Lewis for that. So that's my final
answer. It's the beyond personality third part of mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Wow. Thank you
so much for sharing that. Wow. What a way to end Andrew. Again, we're here with Andrew Morton,
Senior Fellow at World View Academy. Go check out the website worldview.org and whether you are
a student that is interested or if you want to get involved, maybe you want to volunteer, whatever
it might be, go check it out, reach out to CLT if you have any questions. We'll make sure we'll
connect you with Andrew. But really grateful for the excellent work that you're doing. I mean,
I think everyone listening today, just you're the embodiment of the kind of education that you're
now also passing on to the next generation. And that talk about Chesterton, right? It's just
really beautiful to see. I'm enchanted for sure after this conversation. And yeah, we're just
praying for you all and keep up the great work, Andrew. Thanks for joining today. Thank you so
and thank you for yeah, we're on the same mission, brother. So appreciate you. Thank you for the
opportunity and look forward to seeing your listeners at World View at a camp near near them.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Anchored. If you enjoyed it,
please be sure to leave a rating or review on your podcast platform of choice.
And remember to subscribe and share with your friends and colleagues. Thanks for joining us
and we'll see you next time.

Anchored by the Classic Learning Test

Anchored by the Classic Learning Test

Anchored by the Classic Learning Test
